Below the fold is an email I received from Jolie Justus, a good friend from college who is running for the 10th District of the Missouri State Senate. I figured I'd pass along the info as she'd make a great addition to the state legislature and could help stem the tide of some of the wingnuts that are getting out of control back in my home state.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cross-posted at Booman Tribune and My Left Wing

Is it just me or is the process for choosing the next World Bank head a little disconcerting?

Did the European Union or anyone else for that matter even have the opportunity to promote their own candidates for the World Bank president before Paul Wolfowitz was approved by the board?

I'm having a severe problem with the lack of transparency and democratic principles used by this organization which, of course, has any number of other problems.

Ummm... yeah, sorry, but we couldn't find that for you. Nope. Looked everywhere... and then some. Not sure why nothing turned up. It's the darndest thing. So, yeah, maybe you can take your Freedom of Information Act request, go home and quit blocking the line...

On Friday, a couple friends and I launched Pretzels for the Prez as a satirical outlet for the disgruntled masses to send President Bush pretzels by Jan. 20 as Inauguration Day "gifts."

The idea is two-fold:
a) Play off Bush's infamous pretzel choking incident for some good-natured fun with Dubya
b) Raise money to donate to Verified Voting.org

I should state for the record that I'm not a big fan of polls. I don't think they're very trustworthy, and they appear to be less so with every passing day.

As such, I thought I would pass along this story by David Price at Counter Punch:

Okay not really, but it is good news that Israel's Supreme Court has ordered changes to the separation wall snaking it's way through the West Bank. I'm not a big fan of the US or Isreali SCs, but they seem to be doing the right thing the last couple days (for the most part).

The Guardian has the goods:

I saw Dennis Miller on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno the other day and was amazed at how offensive and generally ignorant he was. I know I shouldn't be, but I haven't seen Miller's ridiculous show since Eric Alterman made him blow a fuse. Anyway, I caught the show again this weekend, taped it and now have transcribed it for your reading (dis)pleasure.

Here's the short Dennis Miller:
Kerry, Dean, Kucinich, Clinton, 9/11 Commission and Muslims: Bad
Bush, Reagan, Global Warming and Lesbianism: Good

Well, by now we all know what the 9/11 Commission says about the Iraq-al-Qaeda link. And the BushCo reaction is typical and is rightly described as a Bush tantrum. What it comes down to is - that Bush says that he never said "said." Ha. It's been repeated a million times lately, but oh for the days when all we had to worry about was a blowjob, a little real estate deal between friends and what the definition of is "is."

As if we needed more proof that the Patriot Act isn't good for much more than trampling over the Constitution and citizens' rights. From Common Dreams:

http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0603-13.htm

Three artists have been served subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury that will consider bioterrorism charges against a university professor whose art involves the use of simple biology equipment.

We heard for a minute that the military was cutting off internet access to the troops when the Abu Ghraib story blew up. This was never confirmed and I believe it was an AFP story. Now a report of Rumsfeld banning all camera phones, digital cameras and camcorders.